The acquisition of WMYD creates a duopoly with the largest Scripps station, Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ. The acquisition of WKBW in Buffalo adds the ABC station in market No. 52. With this deal, Scripps will own 11 ABC affiliates that will reach nearly 12 percent of U.S. households, the largest reach among station groups.

The transaction is structured as a purchase of assets, and it will be funded with cash on hand; no debt financing will be required. It is expected to be accretive to earnings in the first full year Scripps operates the acquired stations. The two stations together have about 100 employees.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter.

Scripps and Granite also have signed a Time Brokerage Agreement, whereby Scripps will provide four to six hours of daily programming to WMYD until the deal closes.

After the deal closes, Scripps will own 21 stations: ABC affiliates in Buffalo, Detroit, Denver, Indianapolis, San Diego, Tampa, Fla., Cleveland, Phoenix, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Bakersfield, Calif.; NBC affiliates in West Palm Beach, Fla., Kansas City, Mo., and Tulsa, Okla.; an independent station in Lawrence, Kan. (a duopoly with Kansas City), and a MyNetworkTV affiliate in Detroit; and five Azteca America affiliates.

The total market reach for Scripps stations will be nearly 14 percent of U.S. households once the transaction is complete.

There are edicts that quietly come out of government agencies that can have a profound impact on how Americans conduct their daily lives, but are obscured in bureaucratic arcana and thus subjected to minimal scrutiny.